Announcing Representation of Mehwish Iqbal

14 Oct 2022

Yavuz Gallery is delighted to announce the representation of Mehwish Iqbal.

Her upcoming solo exhibition titled Laa Makaan will inaugurate her representation with the Gallery. Continuing her success from The National exhibition 2021, Laa Makaan is comprised of a new suit of works incorporating embroidery, printmaking, painting, textiles, and installation. Its title translates from Iqbal’s native language, Urdu/Rekhta, to: ‘into a divine world, without a place or a deity’. Exploring this concept as an external influence, Iqbal constructs and deconstructs narratives of belonging in her latest oeuvre.

Iqbal’s labour-intensive process abids a specific system of laws, much like the laws bound to the animal kingdom, the physics of nature and echos of reality in society’s imposed legal structures.

Mehwish Iqbal (b. 1981, Pakistan) is a multidisciplinary Australian artist whose practice incorporates, printmaking, painting, textiles, sculpture, and installation.

Her current research examines the geo-political scenarios giving rise to the influx of refugee and migrant diaspora, commodification of human agency, monopoly of power-play, hybrid identities and their complex reception in alien environments. She explores the interdependent relationship of individuals with their natural surroundings, dissecting a parallel landscape that explores the acceptance and rejection of new members in foreign territories. She actively engages with various communities to generate a universal discourse around human conditions to unravel its vulnerabilities, survival instincts and strategies through the layers of history and present-day challenges.

Iqbal holds a BA in Fine Arts, National College of Arts, Pakistan and a MA in Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Australia. Residencies include New York Artist League, USA (2011), Megalo Print Studio, Australia (2013), Halka Arts Projects, Turkey (2014), Bundanon Trust, Australia (2014) and Blacktown Art Centre, Australia (2015). Recent curated exhibitions include The National, Museum of Contemporary Arts (Australia); Soul Fury, Bendigo Art Gallery (Australia); New Sacred, Mosman Art Gallery (Australia), amongst many others.

Image: Mehwish Iqbal, Darind, 2022, etching, collagraph, silk screen, 24-karat silver leaf hand embroidery on paper, 84 x 80 cm